Imprint
- Gollancz
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Science fiction, Climate change, Natural disasters, Genetic engineering
A dazzling new science fiction novel from the multiple award winning author of SOMETHING COMING THROUGH
A prescient and chilling climate change thriller set on the harsh landscape of Antarctica from one of the best science fiction writers of the present day
The great geoengineering projects have failed.
The world is still warming, sea levels are still rising, and the Antarctic Peninsula is home to Earth's newest nation, with life quickened by ecopoets spreading across valleys and fjords exposed by the retreat of the ice.
Austral Morales Ferrado, a child of the last generation of ecopoets, is a husky: an edited person adapted to the unforgiving climate of the far south, feared and despised by most of its population. She's been a convict, a corrections officer in a labour camp, and consort to a criminal, and now, out of desperation, she has committed the kidnapping of the century. But before she can collect the ransom and make a new life elsewhere, she must find a place of safety amongst the peninsula's forests and icy plateaus, and evade a criminal gang that has its own plans for the teenage girl she's taken hostage.
Blending the story of Austral's flight with the fractured history of her family and its role in the colonisation of Antarctica, Austral is a vivid portrayal of a treacherous new world created by climate change, and shaped by the betrayals and mistakes of the past.
Austral has been optioned for television by Circle of Confusion, the company who brought The Walking Dead and Locke and Key to the small screen. They've recruited award-winning screenwriter Elise McCredie (Stateless) and director Erik Skjoldbj rg (An Enemy of the People, Insomnia) to work on this exciting project.
'Paul McAuley's balanced grasp of science and literature, always a rare attribute in the writer of prose fiction, is combined with the equally rare ability to look at today's problems and know which are really problems, and what can be done about them.' William Gibson
Readers are captivated by Austral:
'Austral feels very timely, as it confronts questions about borders, climate change, geoengineering, biodiversity, racism, and xenophobia . . . An excellent climate change novel' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Devastating, humane, extraordinarily harsh and beautiful' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The world building is very nicely done, with a strong sense of place and landscape. And the tale is infused with thoughtful reflection on climate change, wilding and genetic modifications' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Praise for Austral: A gripping climate change thriller like no other
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The excitement of a new country appearing right here on Earth, a real possibility that is quite fascinating in itself, is doubled down here by way of a thrilling kidnap-and-rescue plot that ranges across this beautiful new landscape, showing how we will soon be not only terraforming Earth, but finding new ways to take care of each other. It's a vivid example of science fiction at its best. - Kim Stanley Robinson
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Oh boy, it's a good one. A cracking setup; great writing; great pacing; a genuinely fresh narrative voice, and for once - hooray! - a male author writing a complex, first-person female narrator who is neither a broflake's wet-dream, nor a wooden stereotype. Austral is big, strong, powerful, and yet with real vulnerabilities; a flawed and relatable heroine with agency, feelings and spirit. And to cap it all, Austral is fat - genetically edited to be fat in a way that enhances her strength and endurance, and in the context of her race, is only ever mentioned as a positive. Halleluia. It can be done.
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Cli-fi transcendent.
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An exquisite human story set on an undiscovered continent of our near future.
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Austral may be McAuley's best yet. And the best near-future novel yet written.
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Paul McAuley has quickened science fiction. The future has changed. - Stephen Baxter
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Bleakly beautiful, Austral is both a finely-honed character study and a powerful evocation of landscape and change, delivered with icy clarity. This is the kind of fiction we will need as the Anthropocene takes hold.
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Moving and beautiful. A true novel of the Anthropocene. - James Bradley, author of THE CLADE
Paul McAuley
Paul McAuley (Born 1955)
Paul James McAuley was born in Gloucestershire on St George's Day, 1955. He has a Ph.D in Botany and worked as a researcher in biology at various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in botany at St Andrews University, before leaving academia to write full time. He started publishing science fiction with the short story "Wagon, Passing" for Asimov's Science Fiction in 1984. His first novel, 400 Billion Stars won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988, and 1995's Fairyland won the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Awards. He has also won the British Fantasy, Sidewise and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. He lives in London.
You can find his blog at: http://www.unlikelyworlds.blogspot.com
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